Knob means for electronic device slideable control

ABSTRACT

An improvement in an electronic device of the type including a cabinet housing a slideably adjustable control means and having an opening for passing means for operating the control means. The improvement comprises providing knob means having a portion which can be passed through a narrow, elongate opening in the cabinet and snap connected to complementary means provided on the control means such that no additional fastener means other than the complementary means are required to maintain connection of the knob means to the control means.

nited States to 1 ammw [72] Inventor GeraldJ.Cavanaugh,Sr.

Chesapeake, Va. 863,546

Oct. 3, 1969 Nov. 2, 1971 General Electric Company [21] Appl. No. [22]Filed [45] Patented [73] Assignee 54] KNOB MEANS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICESLIDEABLE CONTROL 2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl... 287/53 H [51] Int. Cl Fl6d1/06 [50] Field of Search287/53 H,

138, 119,DIG. 13; 200/172; 174/46; 16/1 14 A, 116, 110; 285/DIG.21

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/ 1966 Fillweber 3,367,2062/1968 Moody 200/172 X 3,409,858 11/1968 Krehbiel... 287/119 X 3,511,9565/1970 Fields 200/172 Primary ExaminerDavid J. Williamowsky AssistantExaminer-Wayne L. Shedd I Attorneys-James E. Espe and Francis H. Boos,

Frank L. Neuhauser, Oscar B. Waddell and Joseph B. Forman ABSTRACT: Animprovement in an electronic device of the type including a cabinethousing a slideably adjustable control means and having an opening forpassing means for operating the control means. The improvement comprisesproviding knob means having a portion which can be passed through anarrow, elongate opening in the cabinet and snap connected tocomplementary means provided on the control means such that noadditional fastener means other than the complementary means arerequired to maintain connection of the knob means to the control means.

KNOB MEANS FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE SLIDEABLE CONTROL 1 BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION This invention relates to an improvement in an electronicdevice of the type including a cabinet housing a slideably adjustablecontrol means and having an opening for passing means for operating thecontrol means, and, more particularly, this invention relates to theprovision of improved knob means having a portion that can be passedthrough a narrow, elongate opening in the cabinet and snap connected tocomplementary means provided on the control means such that noadditional fastener means are required to maintain connection of theknob means to the control means.

lieretofore, it has been known to employ slideable control means inelectronic devices. For example, slideably adjustable resistor meanshave previously been used in electronic devices, such asradio receivers,to control the receiver audio volume level. In such' prior art devices,the slideably adjustable resistor was mounted within the cabinet andincluded an operating lever having a distal end which was adapted to bepassed outwardly from the cabinet through an opening pro- SUMMARY OF THEPRESENT INVENTION ln accordance with the present invention there isprovided an improvement in an electronic device of the type whichincludes a cabinet housing a slideably adjustable control means andhaving an opening for passing means for operating the control means.Basically, the present invention comprises providing novelknob meanshaving a portion which can be passed through a narrow, elongate openingin the cabinet and snap connected to complementary means provided on thecontrol means such that no additional fastener means other than thecomplementary means are required to maintain connection of the knobmeans to the control means. Preferably, the knob means and thecomplementary means comprise tongue means integrally formed with aportion of the control means and groove means integrally formed withthat portion of the knob means which can be passed through the narrow,elongate cabinet opening.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is illustratedin the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an electronic device, a televisionreceiver, incorporating a presently preferred form of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken along line2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 33 of FIG. 2;and

F l6. 4 is a still further enlarged exploded view of the structure shownin FIGS. 2 and 3, with the generally conventional housing of theslideable control means being shown in shadow.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings,and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is illustrated an electronicdevice, a television receiver 10, of the typein which the presentinvention can be incorporated. The electronic device has a generallyrectangular,boxlike outer cabinet 11 and is provided with "on-off"switch means I2 by which the viewer can activate and deactivate thereceiver 10; channel selector means 13 by which the viewer can selectthe particular station or channel he wishes to view; and audio volumecontrol means 14 by which the viewer can adjust the audio volume levelof the receiver 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, the on-off" switch means 12, channel selector means13 and audio volume control means 14 are operated by the viewer from thefront wall of the receiver cabinet 11. The on-off" switch means 12comprises an electric toggle switch 15 of the so-called butterfly"variety that is piyotally mounted by means (not shown) to at leastpartly extend through an opening 16 provided near the upper edge of agenerally rectangular face plate 17, which is attached in a well-knownmanner by fastener means, such as spring clips 18 (FIG. 3) to cover alarge rectangular opening 19 that is provided in the right portion ofthe front wall of the receiver cabinet 11. g

The channel selector means 13 includes a rotary channel selector knob 20that is connected by well-known means (not shown) to channel tuner means(not shown) which are housed within the cabinet 11. The face of therotary channel selector knob 20 is provided with a circumferentiallyspaced series of indicia, which correspond to the available channels orstations, and the desired one of these channel indicia can be rotated bythe viewer into alignment with pointer means 21 marked upon the faceplate 17 adjacent the outer circumference of the selector knob 20.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1-4, the audio volume level control means 14,with which the present invention is particularly concerned, includes anovel audio volume control knob 22 that has a slim portion 23 which canbe passed through a narrow, elongate opening 24 that is provided in thelower portion of the face plate 17 in the front wall of the receivercabinet 11 and connected by novel means, which will be described indetail hereinafter, to slideable control means, such as a slideablyadjustable electrical resistor pot 25, housed within the cabinet I 1 andelectrically connected by conductors 26 to the audio amplifier portion(not shown) of the receiver 10.

With the exception of the novel means which the present inventionprovides for connecting the novel audio volume level control knob 22 toit, the slideable resistor pot 25 is generally conventional and includesa rectangular boxlike plastic housing 27 that is attached by suitablefastener means, such as metal clips 28, to a mounting bracket 29 whichis affixed by a screw 30 to a mounting boss 31 that extends rearwardlyfrom the front wall of the cabinet 11. As best shown in FIG. 2, thehousing 27 of the resistor pot 25 is fixed generally horizontally on thefront wall of the generally vertically arranged mounting bracket 29,which is spaced behind the cabinet front wall and the face plate 17. Thehousing 27 for the slideable control means 25 contains a pair ofvertically spaced, generally horizontally arranged parallel electricalcontact plates 32 and 33 which areprovided with electrical terminals 34,35 and 36 that extend rearwardly through openings provided in themounting bracket 29 for connection with the conductors 26. Alsocontained within the resistor pot housing 27 is an electrical bridgingcontact member, such as a metallic coil spring 37, which is capturedbetween the contact plates 32 and 33 for slideable movement therebetweenby a novel operating member 38 that is constructed and connected to thenovel knob 22 in accordance with the present invention in such a mannerthat movement of the knob 22 in a first direction (to the right as seenin FIG. 1) causes an increase in the audio volume level, while, on theother hand, movement of the knob 22 in a second direction opposite thefirst (to the left as seen in FIG. 1) causes a decrease in the audiovolume level. Suitable indicia, such as the L, M and H shown in FIG. 1,may be marked on the face plate over the narrow, elongate opening 24 forthe knob 22 to respectively indicate low, medium and high levels ofaudio volume and the knob 22 can be aligned by the viewer with thedesired audio level indicia.

While it has been known previously to employ slideable control means,generally similar to the slideable resistor pot 25, it previously hasbeen customary to mount the slideable bridging contact member, such asthe spring 37, on a slideable lever (not shown) which had a distal endthat was adapted to be passed outwardly from the cabinet through anopening in the cabinet which was, of course, necessarily much largerthan the narrow, elongate opening 24 which can be employed in accordancewith the present invention. With these prior art arrangements, it wascommon practice to provide knob means which were attached externally ofthe cabinet to the distal end of the old operating lever by additionalfastener means such as setscrews, spring clips, glue and the like. Oftenwith these prior art systems, it was necessary that the knob means becarefully aligned with complementary means provided on the distal end ofthe old operating lever in order to achieve satisfactory connectiontherewith. Such prior art knob means were costly both to manufacture andassemble.

As illustrated in FIGS. 1-4, the present invention comprises providingthe improved novel knob means 22 having the slim portion 23 which can bepassed through the narrow, elongate opening 24 in the cabinet 11 andsnap connected to complementary means provided on the slideablyadjustable control means 25 such that no additional fastener means otherthan the complementary means are required to maintain connection of theknob means 22 to the control means 25. In the form of the presentinvention illustrated, the knob means 22 and the complementary means areformed of plastic, with the complementary means comprising tongue andgroove means 39 and 40. As best shown in FIG. 4, the tongue means 39 isformed integrally on a generally channellike receptacle portion 41 thatis formed on the front end 38f of the novel operating member 38 which issubstituted by the present invention for the old operating lever as themeans for slideably adjusting the lateral position of the bridgingcontact spring member 37 relative to the stationary contact plates 32and 33. And, the groove means 40 is formed integrally on the slim rearportion 23 of the knob 22 that is passed through the narrow, elongatecabinet opening 24 provided in the lower portion of the face plate 17.As illustrated, the groove means 40 comprises an opening which extendscompletely through the bight area of the channellike receptacle portion41. Of course, the rear end 38r of the novel operating member 38 has agenerally conventional configuration, being formed with means, such asthe illustrated shoulders 42 and 43, for retaining the coil springbridging contact member 37 thereon and for preventing withdrawal of theoperating member 38 from the control means housing 27 withoutdisassembly of the housing 27.

While various types of plastics and forming processes may be employed toform the aforedescribed novel knob means 22 and operating member 38,good results have been inexpensively obtained by molding the noveloperating member 38 and its integrally formed tongue means 39 from ZYTEL101 plastic and by molding the novel knob means 22 and its integrallyformed groove means 40 from CYCOLAC EP3510 plastic.

As best indicated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the novel knob 22 of the presentinvention can be easily connected to the slideable control means 25simply by inserting the slim rear end portion 23 of the knob 22rearwardly through the narrow, elongate opening 24 in the front of thecabinet 11 and into the channellike receptacle portion 41 on the frontend 38f of the novel operating member 38 until snap connection occursbetween the complementary tongue and groove means 39 and 40. With theaforedescribed novel arrangement of the present invention it has beenfound that the knob means 22 and the slideably adjustable control means25 can be satisfactorily retained connected to one another without theneed for any additional fastener means other than the complementarytongue-andgroove means 39 and 40 and that the aforedescribed novel meansprovided by the present invention substantially reduce the costs ofmanufacture and assembly over the aforenoted prior art arrangements.

While in the herein illustrated form of the present invention theslideably adjustable control means 25 and the improved operating member38 and knob means 22 provided therefor have been shown as beinggenerally horizontally arranged, it

should be understood that they may alternatively be vertically arrangedor arranged positioned at angles to either the horizontal or verticalplanes.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that while there hasbeen described what is considered to be the preferred embodiment of thisinvention in accordance with the patent statutes, changes may be made inthe disclosed apparatus without actually departing from the true spiritand scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. Control means, comprising:

knob means having a generally planar portion, said portion having adepression formed therein, said depression extending transversely to thelongitudinal axis of said knob means, said knob means further havingdetent deflecting means formed therein;

operating member means having a first end adapted to slidably engage anadjustable means, and having a second end adapted to engage saidgenerally planar portion of said knob means;

said second end of said operating member means comprising first andsecond lateral wall means, floor means connected to the bottom edges ofsaid wall means near the distal ends of said wall means and said firstend of said operating member, said floor means having a ramplikeabutment disposed transversely thereacross and in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to said wall means for engaging saiddepression in said knob means whereby said floor means is resilientlydeflected in the area intermediate the points of connection to saidbottom edges of said wall means and to first end of said operatingmember upon engaging said deflecting means.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1, further including at least oneabutment extending inwardly of said operating member from the upper edgeof said wall means for retaining said knob means after engagementthereof.

it a w t u

1. Control means, comprising: knob means having a generally planarportion, said portion having a depression formed therein, saiddepression extending transversely to the longitudinal axis of said knobmeans, said knob means further having detent deflecting means formedtherein; operating member means having a first end adapted to slidablyengage an adjustable means, and having a second end adapted to engagesaid generally planar portion of said knob means; said second end ofsaid operating member means comprising first and second lateral wallmeans, floor means connected to the bottom edges of said wall means nearthe distal ends of said wall means and said first end of said operatingmember, said floor means having a ramplike abutment disposedtransversely thereacross and in a direction substantially perpendicularto said wall means for engaging said depression in said knob meanswhereby said floor means is resiliently deflected in the areaintermediate the points of connection to said bottom edges of said wallmeans and to first end of said operating member upon engaging saiddeflecting means.
 2. The invention as defined in claim 1, furtherincluding at least one abutment extending inwardly of said operatingmember from the upper edge of said wall means for retaining said knobmeans after engagement thereof.